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What being ripped off taught me

belief.horse

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Re: What being ripped off taught me

#171

Post by hn_acc1 »

When I was unemployed, looking for a job, living off severance, someone from my previous job contacted me to do some consulting work "for a friend". Initial terms were for some kind of stock in the company.

It seemed shady from the start, but since it involved python, something I had very little experience with, I decided to try it. I worked like 15-20 hours per week for a few months, learned enough python to be comfortable with it and some other APIs as well (being a little vague on purpose). Later said they could maybe afford to pay me some $$ due to another company they had founded being sold (I verified this much, the person had founded and sold a few companies).

It eventually fell apart after my first deliverable (as I expected, mostly). I used encryption to send python files that would only work for a couple of weeks. Not sure if they ever did anything with it (it's been a few years). Oh well, it ended up helping me get another job where python was a good skill to have.

The biggest loss was that of losing all trust in the person setting things up.

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#172

Post by cantwin »

livinglist wrote: post #163
avoidyc wrote: post #57

[flagged]

May I ask why did you take the L in the end?

He kept using the work product and brand assets for a while, I sent a follow-up email later saying there would be legal action if he didn’t stop using them since he didn’t pay for them.

He left the site up for years but became the CEO of another startup, and the emails started bouncing at the other one.

Advice I got was basically there is not shit I can do, I was a contractor (1099) and even if I had been W2 and had payroll protections the company no longer exists.

It’s very easy to re-brand and start anew in fact that’s what I was helping him do from the last time.

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#173

Post by yeahookbro »

tombert wrote: post #162
luckyyou wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

No argument that I was extremely fortunate to have the people I was able to reach out to and get help from. My friend, my mom (though she didn't actually spend any money in this case, just called in a credit card for the hotel prebill), and my stepfather-in-law made what would have been an extremely terrible situation to just a very terrible situation. I'm sorry you don't feel like you get the help you need, though I…

[flagged]

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#174

Post by [deleted] »

luckyyou wrote: post #161
tombert wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in 2015 I worked for a startup. I turned down a job at a more stable company because this startup had me doing Erlang and I really wanted to work with that. The job worked fine for about six months, and then one week my paycheck (which usually was on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month) wasn't in my bank account. I go the CEO of the company and mention this and he said something like "Oh yeah, something…

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#175

Post by tombert »

yeahookbro wrote: post #173
tombert wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No argument that I was extremely fortunate to have the people I was able to reach out to and get help from. My friend, my mom (though she didn't actually spend any money in this case, just called in a credit card for the hotel prebill), and my stepfather-in-law made what would have been an extremely terrible situation to just a very terrible situation. I'm sorry you don't feel like you get the help you need, though I…

[flagged]

Therapy is much more than just bitching about your problems, and I'm afraid that if you think that whining on Hacker News is going to do anything to help you, then you're either deluded or stupid.

I also don't know what "you types" means? My parents were super against therapy and wouldn't let me go to a therapist or psychiatrist. I sought it out when I was 26 years old.

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#176

Post by neonstatic »

eckesicle wrote: post #21

We’ve also learned this lesson the hard way. These are now the clauses we require in every project we do: - Payment is due X days after receipt of invoice, or immediately after the consultant has addressed any quality issues, whichever is sooner - Late payment shall incur interest at 8% above the BoE base rate and a late fee of 100 GBP as per the UK Late Payment Legislation. Partial payments on invoices shall apply t…

> - Payment shall be made in X currency, or an exchange rate at X date on Oanda.com shall apply.

Typically you would reference average exchange rate published by the central bank

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#178

Post by lolforreal »

tombert wrote: post #175
yeahookbro wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Therapy is much more than just bitching about your problems, and I'm afraid that if you think that whining on Hacker News is going to do anything to help you, then you're either deluded or stupid. I also don't know what "you types" means? My parents were super against therapy and wouldn't let me go to a therapist or psychiatrist. I sought it out when I was 26 years old.

[flagged]

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#179

Post by tombert »

lolforreal wrote: post #178
tombert wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Therapy is much more than just bitching about your problems, and I'm afraid that if you think that whining on Hacker News is going to do anything to help you, then you're either deluded or stupid. I also don't know what "you types" means? My parents were super against therapy and wouldn't let me go to a therapist or psychiatrist. I sought it out when I was 26 years old.

[flagged]

I think what's sad is to find a long post about being ripped off by a startup and then using it extremely tangentially as an excuse to try and tell everyone to feel bad for you. "Woe is me, I would try to do something to improve my life but alas all I can muster is typing on a keyboard to a bunch of uncaring strangers on an internet forum full of software engineers."

I don't really know what I should be "aware" of; I stand by that you should consider seeing a therapist, because clearly you are dealing with some stuff that is far beyond the scope of what you're going to get on Hacker news.

I probably am mentally deprived in some way, but at least I'm self aware enough to actually try and improve my life instead of, you know, bitching about how the world is rigged against me.

Also, I find it telling and cowardly that you keep making throwaway accounts instead of owning your opinions. I can't say that I think you really stand by your convictions.

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#180

Post by tomtard »

lolforreal wrote: post #178
tombert wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Therapy is much more than just bitching about your problems, and I'm afraid that if you think that whining on Hacker News is going to do anything to help you, then you're either deluded or stupid. I also don't know what "you types" means? My parents were super against therapy and wouldn't let me go to a therapist or psychiatrist. I sought it out when I was 26 years old.

[flagged]

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